Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Although I understand there has already been a post about this, dating back to December 2011, with the recent pirate ship balances and more clearly defined bonuses/roles it may be time to re-think about pirate subsystems.

I agree with the prior post that these should require multiple race skills, however, I think it may also be an opportunity to have a single subsystem able to be fit to multiple T3. For instance, a True Sansha Propulsion Subsystem could be fit to both a Tengu or a Legion and provide the 20% bonus to Afterburner velocity.

On the manufacturing side of things, these could require a component that is only made available through the usual pirate channels i.e. drops/pirate LP store.

Regardless, it would be nice to see some pirate subsystems, maybe not for every slot, but at least to add some flavour in the form of pirate factions trying their own shenanigans with sleeper technology.

I like the proposal a lot, and I am not just saying that as a tech 3 manufacturer. The proposal is clean, simple and doesn't pretend to have answers as to implementation, but gives people something to debate over.

If these systems affected the skin/aesthetic of the ship they were attached to, with a minor 'piratification' (made up word, I know) for a mere one system, with full on spikes/bloodstains/whatever if you're running a full pirate set up, I'd be extremely happy.

Edit: Kaarous beat me to it.

the last thing we need is a buff on T3 ships, another point is but i am no industrial type it could have great impact on industry people that make subsystems and or T3 hulls for income

Hey! Thanks for the kind words! I put a lot of effort into that post and I'm glad to see it still has some support.

I still believe that 'pirate' T3 ships have a future. You will never know just by seeing a 'tengu' what fancy pirate stuff they have fitted unless you look at the ship in space to see the texture change, but even still it could be 1 subsystem or all 5.

I know that many are averse to buffing T3 ships, but my counter to this has always been that each subsystem will probably increase the cost by 30-40m, with very minor buffs. A fully 'pirate' T3 would be more versatile, but not better at everything and almost 200m more expensive. I was specific that every pirate subsystem (except the propulsion) should not simply be 'better' than the regular version. The defense sub is designed to increase the HP, or, in the case of the Tengu/Loki, keep things the same but remove the transport bonus and make the +1 high slot into a +1 mid slot (for a total of +2 mids).

It's been some time, and I think think could be reworked a bit.

I also LOVE the idea of having 1 pirate sub being used by 2 different T3 ships. Except, well, that means the Tengu could fit a true sansha offensive sub and use lasers! I'm just not sure if there is a complete solution using this, but I'll try to think it through!

The complete OTHER option is to have pirate T3 hulls with special bonuses, which use normal T3 subsystems...

An example of pirate hulls (instead of having pirate subsystem at all):


True Sansha Legion HULL
3% bonus to Medium Energy Turret damage (per skill level)
Role Bonus:
25% bonus to Medium Energy Turret tracking

Or (since Sansha don't really use amarr hulls):

Dark Blood Legion HULL
3% bonus to Medium Energy Turret damage (per skill level)
Role Bonus:
100% bonus to Energy Vampire and Energy Neutralizer range (one-half the Curse bonus)

Shadow Serpentis Proteus HULL
3% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret damage (per skill level)
Role Bonus:
25% bonus to the velocity factor of stasis webifiers (half the standard Serpentis bonus)

Dread Guristas Tengu HULL
15% bonus to Light Combat Drone damage and hitpoints (per skill level)
Role Bonus:
+25mbit for drones (50bmit max now)

Domination Loki HULL
3% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret rate of fire (per skill level) (about half the standard bonus)
Role Bonus:
50% bonus to warp speed and warp acceleration.

EDIT: Removed the small HP bonus.

QUESTION: Should they Keep the 5% heat damage reduction from the standard T3 hull?

This sounds extremely interesting, I like where its going. Unfortunately I am thinking it will have to wait until long after the T3 rebalance pass.

I have long thought pirate subsystems would be great to have. It could lead to a bit more interest by adding to the meta and there's plenty of potential for new stuff there. Proteus with a guristas style drone bay would be neat, it still plays to the same sensibilities of the ship while having a bit of different gameplay there, while the same system on a Tengu adds new gameplay, for instance. It shouldn't be an issue for balance, the design of T3s according to CCPs new plan for meta is that generalists should be able to do more, less effectively than specialists and a T3 rebalance is somewhere in the future to hopefully make that happen. If that happens then pirate systems improve the generalist potential by adding options, and if the balance pass works as advertised, pirate cruisers and T2s should still be more effective.

I don't think we need pirate T3s just yet, though. I'd rather see them add pirate T2s first or more classes of T3 ship.

I would love to see Pirate Subsystems or Hulls. However, I wouldn't want them to be buffed versions of T3's. Just alternate options.

Crafting component: various numbers of player corpses for proper reaver look.

I can see this being easily implemented without any power creep by focusing on the pirate faction strengths for new and unique options for T3 configurations. My vote goes for both hull and subsystems, because both ideas offer the opportunity for entirely different levels of customization, and customization is the name of the game when it comes to T3's.

That is, assuming the hull bonuses disappear. T3's don't need anything but the 5% reduction to heat damage the standard hulls currently deliver. The rest of the flavor can come from arranging subsystems and hulls that can equip new combinations of said subsystems.